Discussion

A very large sunspot, some four times the size of the Earth, started to emerge on the edge of the sun over the weekend and it has continued to slowly rotate around the sun. A couple of coronal mass ejections (CMEs) have already occurred over the past couple of days emanating from this particular active sunspot, but so far, they have only produced glancing blows to the Earth’s magnetic field. As the sunspot continues to rotate around the sun over the next couple of days, it’ll face the Earth more directly; therefore, there will be an increasing chance for a more direct hit on the Earth’s magnetic field - if additional eruptions actually do occur – which could cause numerous “northern lights” sightings in the northern latitudes. NOAA forecasters estimate a 75% chance of an “M class” (moderate-sized) solar flare from this sunspot over the next couple of days and a 35% chance of an “X-flare” (major event). We’ll continue to monitor the situation here at “thesiweather.com”.